Weekly Roundup 10/19: The Golden Standard for Loyalty

Welcome to the weekly roundup: a compilation of news, ideas and learnings from the SessionM world.

Quote of the week:

“There’s a bit of cognitive dissonance among consumers when it comes to personalization. On the one hand, they have told us they want contextually relevant, personalized advertising vs. seeing messaging from brands that has nothing to do with them. On the other hand, consumer distrust in advertising is at an all-time low as they rethink with whom to share their most coveted, private information. Brands that provide demonstrable utility and value while safeguarding their users’ data will likely fare much better in this current climate than those whose purpose is unclear.” – Jeremy Hlavacek, Head of Revenue at IBM Watson Advertising (eMarketer)

Guess which restaurant chain has the most loyalty customers?

Surprise, surprise-it’s Starbucks! The global coffee company has long been the gold standard for other companies to look up to when trying to improve their loyalty and retention strategies. According to a new report from QSR Magazine on which restaurant chains have the most loyal customers, Starbucks remains in pole position. The rankings were based on customer frequency, penetration, share of wallet, and fanaticism threshold. Since not every restaurant can be like Starbucks check out our blog post on what’s holding restaurants back from greater customer loyalty and tips for overcoming the hurdles holding them back.

Hey FIRST_NAME have you heard about data-driven personalization?

Research from Accenture found that poor personalization efforts cost U.S. organizations $756 billion in 2017 (Retail Dive). Personalization is certainly a key part of many marketing strategies, yet it remains a troublesome task to pull off. In a study of the most difficult online tactics to execute in a digital marketing strategy, 63% of respondents said data-driven personalization, while no other tactic had over a 50% response rate (eMarketer). According to a survey from Sailthru, the biggest barrier to achieving personalization goals is a lack of resources, with many survey respondents citing challenges around data as being a top barrier. SessionM is helping some of the most well known brands in the world improve their personalization efforts by ingesting data from disparate systems and creating unified, actionable customer profiles that can be used for more effective 1:1 marketing. Get in touch to find out how we can help your company!

Do US companies need to become GDPR compliant?

The steps that many US companies are taking to comply with the GDPR are pretty small, but US companies can certainly be affected if they have customers or audiences residing in the EU. According to eMarketer, news publishers such as the Los Angeles Times and Newsday have simply blocked traffic from the EU rather than risk being fined. A survey done by eMarketer found that only 12% of American companies are fully GDPR compliant, while 36% haven’t started or only have a plan in place. With the California Consumer Privacy Act being signed into law this summer and set to take effect in 2020, combined with 68% of US internet users saying they support GDPR-style rules in the US, it’s probably wise for US companies to not sit and wait to get their data in order. Find out how SessionM helps global companies become GDPR compliant.

People still want to go to brick and mortar stores?

Actually yes, consumer habits are certainly changing, but one thing that hasn’t is the interest in going to an actual store. According to NBC News more than two-thirds of adult consumers said they either tended to shop more in stores or equally between online and in store. Even for adult consumers ages 18-29, just 26% used e-commerce more. The National Retail Federation and market analyst firm Forrester showed more retailers were planning to open rather than close stores in 2018. With on-premise spend not going anywhere just yet make sure you’re leveraging transactional data, from the point of sale and e-commerce websites, for greater customer insights. Check out our blog post on the topic!